El Paso Electric is Scared of Solar

Published on 12/22/2015

In August of 2015, El Paso Electric Company filed a rate case because they want to collect more money. In addition to wanting rates to go up for everybody, El Paso Electric wants current and future users of solar power to pay more than other customers. They want to triple the monthly Customer Charge for solar users, charge solar customers more for each kWh they purchase from EPEC, and add demand charges based on maximum peak usage. (Hint – during maximum peak usage solar customers are generating more than they can use, and sending their electrons back to EPEC to sell to other users.)

Why? Because EPEC is scared of their shareholders losing profits when customers use clean solar power. They want everybody to continue using the power they generate instead of allowing the homeowner to generate some, and they want to do this by segregating solar customers out from all the other customers and discriminating against them in a punitive manner. Imagine if your grocery store decided to charge you more for meat and bread if you decided to start growing your own vegetables.